Making Real

October 16, 2008

Bornowsky’s new work attempts to generate his desired experience using multi-coloured dots. He had been using multi-coloured cubes that appeared to have been opened up, but he found them to be not abstract enough. Much of the inspiration for the dots came while visiting Europe and stumbling across Islamic geometric designs in various museums. He was drawn to their flat orientation and visual similarity, and finds his dots mimic that effect.

The dots have been working so well that, for the most part, all of his work for the past year has followed the structure of large dots surrounding small dots in a cube shape. His work has now become a question of applying various colour choices on top of that.

Bornowsky is interested in what he calls the viewers “hierarchy of the composition.” Even though the dots are on a grid it’s uncertain whether the bright dots are more dominate, or whether the dark dots become a more prominent form. Your understanding of the image can change depending on how you look at it.

Rather than a connect-the-dot that reveals an image on the canvas, Bornowsky’s work seeks to reveal an image of yourself and your perception. But even he can’t help seeing new relationships between the dots.

“I like how one dot might reach across to another one on the other side of the canvass and suddenly they’ll be in relation to one another in a way they wouldn’t if you were looking at them from another point of view.”

Bornowsky has also spent much time looking at the works included in his curated show at Or Gallery, Making Real. The abstract works he selected for the show were all pieces he had spent a lot of time with in his peers’ studios or museums. From Mat Bushell and Monique Mouton to Richard Tuttle and Guido Molinari, Bornowsky has first hand experience with them all.

As a result, Bornowsky has a pretty good idea about the sensibilities the works will deliver. What he realized in compiling the show is how many different ways there are to speak about abstract art generically. But it’s only when you see the works in the flesh, with all their unique nuances and takes on the theme that he feels you get a true understanding of what abstract art is about.

“The works themselves nuance the generic abstract concept and give some sort of sensibility that expands it. Philosophy is good at describing the generic concept of being and existence, but art and poetry have the potential to nuance that and give it flavour.”

New Works on Paper and Canvas will be on display from Fri October 17 – Sat November 8 at Vancouver’s Blanket Contemporary Art Inc.
Making Real will be on display from Fri October 17 – Sat November 22 at Vancouver’s Or Gallery.